Examiner Dr Colm Keane is a member of the Team Ireland management team as medical support for the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023.
Below Dr Keane shares his experience with the Special Olympics World Games.
Berlin, Germany’s capital city, was home to the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games.
From June 17-25th, 6,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities, from 176 different programmes, participated in 26 different sports. They were aided by 3,000 coaches and support staff, 18,000 volunteers and 9,000 family members. 330,000 spectators watched on as the 2023 games unfolded, opening with a spectacular ceremony in the city’s Olympic Stadium.
Team Ireland, comprising of 73 athletes, and 36 coaches and management team members, participated in 12 sports; athletics, basketball, badminton, bocce, bowling, equestrian, football, golf, gymnastics, kayaking, table tennis and swimming.
Preparation for a world summer games starts more than a year prior to the games. Athlete selection occurs in tandem with coach and management team selection. Once finalised, preparations begin for training, beginning with the first of two overnight residential weekends. This allows all members of Team Ireland adequate opportunity to get to know their team members and coaches, and for the management team to familiarise themselves with the whole team. Such residential weekends, apart from their team-focused training sessions, also include workshops on topics such as psychological resilience (strong minds) and team building. Coaches are also briefed in detail regarding medication administration and supporting athletes with challenging behaviour. Monthly training sessions occur until the final training weekend, which is the second overnight residential weekend. At this stage, teams are finalised, qualifying times have been submitted, and the last fine-tuning takes place to ensure all athletes and coaches are ready to go for the upcoming world games.
My son, Tadhg, and I, with Timothy Morahan (Rathmines, Dublin), who won gold in the 5000m with a time of 17.35 minutes
Team-members of the Irish Soccer Team after securing Gold.
I have worked with Special Olympics Ireland since 2018. In 2018, I was a member of the organising committee for the National Games, held in Dublin. Thereafter in 2019, I was part of Team Ireland management team, as medical support, when the World Summer Games were held in the UAE. Since then, I remained closely involved with all medical aspects of Special Olympics Ireland, serving as their medical advisor throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. I was then fortunate to obtain the role of Medical Lead for the 2023 World Games.
From a medical perspective, all athletes attending Special Olympics World Games must have an up to date medical record, usually completed by their General Practitioner or Sports Physician. For Team Ireland, once the athlete was selected for the 2023 World Games, they completed a medical form in conjunction with their doctor. This was subsequently reviewed by myself and the medical support staff on Team Ireland. Once reviewed, athlete health optimisation occurs throughout the duration of the games preparation. This may include referral for specific investigations or consultations, improving independence with chronic disease management (particularly type 1 Diabetes Mellitus), and extensive athlete and family engagement. Over the six months of preparation, major transformations are often seen, particularly in the area of chronic disease management.
The games themselves are a much bigger leap into the unknown for many athletes. Preparatory residential weekends are a maximum of two nights in duration, while the games can be 14-18 days in length. This highlights how crucial adequate preparation is from the athletes, families, coaches and management team. Prior to the games competition, we resided in our host town, Bielefeld, in North-West Germany. Heat acclimatisation and games preparation began there, with several events held by the town mayor for Team Ireland. We travelled to Berlin prior to the Opening Ceremony and games commencement.
Medical management of Team Ireland is a continuum of the preparation in Ireland, with the added workload of games-related musculoskeletal injuries, and various typical ailments of a two-week trip away. Your hotel room becomes a temporary medical clinic for athletes and coaches alike. All incidents are captured on a medical app, RaceSafe, to allow for future games planning, and to allow appropriate after action reporting post-games.
A “Healthy Athlete Programme” also runs throughout the world games, where athletes have an opportunity to have certain aspects of their health optimised, including sight, hearing, dental care, and podiatry. At this year’s games, over 15,000 athlete screenings took place.
The games also provide opportunity for collaboration, medical and otherwise. I became a member of the Special Olympics Global Medical Advisory Committee in 2023, and we had our inaugural meeting at the Berlin Games. The committee is tasked with producing various policies and guidelines, and reports to the Special Olympics International Board of Directors.
In 1962, Eunice Kennedy Shriver created a camp for children with intellectual disabilities. Since then, and the first games, held in Chicago in 1968, the global phenomena Special Olympics was created, which now has Mary Davis (Mayo, Ireland) as its Chief Executive Officer.
I was lucky enough to have my 7-year old son, Tadhg, in attendance as a special guest of Special Olympics at the closing ceremony of the games, which was a phenomenal experience. The games, and their whole journey to them, brings with it ups and downs, laughter, tears (mostly of joy) and a whole new appreciation of sheer exhaustion. Team Ireland brought home 75 medals (24 gold, 22 silver, and 29 bronze) and memories that will last the athletes, coaches, management team, and families a lifetime.
For anyone considering getting involved in Special Olympics, at club, national or international level, please feel free to contact me directly, or log onto the Special Olympics Ireland Website for more information. You will not regret it.